


if you have a minute (why don't we go)

by HearJessRoar



Series: Camp Bright Moon [3]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Canonical Character Death, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Grief/Mourning, hey kids want some pain?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:15:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25547296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HearJessRoar/pseuds/HearJessRoar
Summary: A girl made of grief and the boy who loves her.Glimmer, Bow, some wasps, and the mourning daughter she never had the chance to be.At a summer camp.Which she owns now, because her mother is dead.
Relationships: Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra)
Series: Camp Bright Moon [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1788703
Comments: 23
Kudos: 71





	if you have a minute (why don't we go)

Glimmer watched the canoes burn, and wondered idly what she had done to deserve this.

Maybe it was that time she declared war on the now-financially failing science camp.

To be fair, they had been _constantly blowing things up._ It would have driven anyone to temporary insanity.

Bow frantically dumped buckets of lake water on the quickly melting boats, but Glimmer just stood back and watched, her mind filled with a weird buzzing silence.

_Oh,_ she realized lightly.

_This is rage._

Turned out it had a kind of serenity to it.

"Sea Hawk?" she asked, observing as Bow gave up and sat down on the beach with his head in his hands. Black, plasticky smoke curled in thick clouds towards the sky.

"Yes, my wonderful sweet boss who is also my friend and would definitely never murder me in the middle of the woods?"

"Find a replacement."

"For the canoes, or for me?"

"The first one, and if you can't find that, then the second one."

~

He’d come back into her office later, boasting that he’d been able to arrange paddle boat rentals with “the beautiful woman across the lake, the one whose eyes sparkle like diamonds.”

A direct quote.

Glimmer stared tiredly at the door. Then she stared tiredly at the paperwork on her desk. Then she stared tiredly at Sea Hawk.

“Great,” she said, with as much enthusiasm as she could muster. 

It was not a lot.

Look, when her mom had bequeathed the ownership of her beloved Camp Bright Moon to her only daughter, Glimmer had been thrilled. She had grown up attending, some of her earliest memories were in this very office, watching her mom direct the delicate finesse of running a camp. It was supposed to have been _fun._

It wasn’t.

It was long days, starting in _March_ , and a lot of paperwork, and hiring employees, and hoping said employees brought their brain cells with them, and dealing with phone calls from concerned mothers who had heard about the change in ownership who wanted to know how their precious child's summer was going to change and-

Nobody ever asked how Glimmer was dealing with her mother's death anymore.

The thought struck her out of nowhere sometimes.

After she had dismissed Sea Hawk from her line of sight, she spent a minute staring blankly at her desk.

Two minutes.

Ten minutes.

The polished oak had been much beloved by her mother, and Glimmer had been doing her best to maintain it. But she could see where her nails had left little half moons in the lacquer, when she'd been trying desperately to control her temper by gripping the desk.

She sighed, shoulders slumping. It felt like everything she touched, -everything her mother had left her- was getting ruined in her care; the camp, the car, the stupid _desk,_ the box of Hummel figurines she accidentally dropped the other day-

The door slammed open with a racket of clattering blinds and bounced off the wall. Glimmer jumped nearly out of her chair.

Bow had the good grace to look apologetic as she pressed her hand over her hammering heart.

"There's wasps in the laundromat."

Glimmer, who was usually very good at deciphering Bow when he said odd things, raised her eyebrows. "What."

Bow flopped dramatically into the chair in front of her desk.

"There are _wasps_ in the _laundromat!_ " he emphasized, complete with hand gestures. "I talked to Perfuma about it and she says her dad won't do anything because disturbing the nest will just rile them up and now no one can do their laundry."

Glimmer pressed her fingers into the hollows of her jaw, repressing the urge to scream. She gave Bow a pained little smile, one she knew he saw right through. “Okay,” she said, taking a deep breath. “We’ll figure something out. For now, all we need washed are the infirmary sheets, right?”

“Right.”

“So anyone who needs laundry done can just brave the laundromat themselves or find someone in town willing to let them use theirs, I guess. And I’ll take care of the infirmary sheets myself.”

“Glimmer-” 

“It’s fine, Bow. I’ll take care of it.”

He worried his bottom lip and it took everything in her not to stare.

~

Three days later, the infirmary sheets had still not been washed. They sat in their basket, neglected, as she typed numbers into her calculator, grumbled in frustration, and started over.

~

Five days, still not washed. Starting to get kinda rank, even. Glimmer stared down at them, shrugged, and continued to her desk. It would have to wait.

~

A whole _week_.

_ew,_ but like at this point, also _whatever._

~

If Bow complained to her about the wasps _one more goddamn time-_

~

He forced her to go with him to the diner one night. Glimmer had protested, claiming that she needed to fill out vaccination forms in triplicate, but Bow had quite literally picked her up and carried her out of the office.

She gave a token struggle, but honestly the fact that he could still do that was kind of thrilling.

Aaaaand she shoved that thought deep deep down where she would never reexamine it again. She stuffed a fry into her mouth and promptly choked, drawing his attention to her. He handed her his soda, and clapped a hand on her back until she could breathe again. Face red, she asked him to repeat what he’d just said as she gave his drink back to him.

“I think you should acquire the science camp.” he repeated, chewing on his straw.

“You cannot be serious.”

“I’ll bet Hordak would sell it to you for cheap if you let him stay. And you could expand the Camp Bright Moon brand. _And,_ ” he said, waving a fry for emphasis. “If you own it, you could keep an eye on them, and keep the explosions to a minimum.”

Glimmer pressed her hand to her forehead. “I doubt any authority could stop them, Bow. I already had the city order a noise ordinance. Did that work? No!”

“Just think about it.”

She did.

~

Meeting with Hordak wasn’t exactly the terrifying encounter she had expected.

In fact, he looked...sad.

Well, she supposed. The Fright Zone science camp had been his for an awfully long time.

His _and_ Entrapta’s, she corrected herself.

And however she felt personally about his tendency to blow things up or light the marina on fire, she couldn’t imagine how devastating it must be to lose something you built from the ground up. The thought of losing Camp Bright Moon filled her with a sense of dread, and yes, she could understand exactly how much this probably hurt Hordak.

She cleared her throat, trying for a reassuring, professional smile that said _I am a responsible adult, you can trust me with the ownership of your property you no longer legally claim, I promise,_ but it was hollow, even to her. Somehow it felt like he _knew_ she’d had Coco Puffs for breakfast and still stepped on crunchy leaves. She fought her instinct to shrink downwards into her chair, to look even smaller in this office where her mother had commanded an entire camp infrastructure with ease.

Glimmer tapped the paperwork on the desk, unnecessarily straightening it out just to have something to do with her fidgety hands as Hordak looked awkwardly at the floor.

“I’ve already told Entrapta that I plan on you two keeping your positions,” she said, mostly to fill the silence. “But I think I should probably formally extend that invitation to you.”

Hordak nodded silently, and looked at her, contemplative. “Your mother would not have considered that idea,” he said.

Glimmer felt like she had missed a step walking up the stairs in the dark. Her smile twisted and she fought her eye twitch. “I’m not my mother.”

He gave her a measured look. “No.” he said, tone very neutral. “You are not.”

It was unclear exactly what he meant by that, but Glimmer chose to see it as a positive remark. He seemed grateful to be able to keep his job, and it had been no secret that Angella had not liked this man.

After filing the papers and showing Hordak out, Glimmer sagged in her chair. She ran a hand through her hair and checked the time. If she hurried, she could be done with camper preregistration in a half hour, maybe forty five minutes?

It needed done, and it needed done soon, and it felt like the paperwork never ended. She was going to have to sign up for lifeguard duty just to get out of this office at any point this summer, the way all the paperwork was going.

She set the very last form into her Completed box, and stretched her arms over her head. Rolling her shoulders to rid them of the stiffness that had settled in like a concrete block on her neck, she was surprised to see that it had gotten dark out while she’d been absorbed in her work. Checking her phone, she noted it really had only been an hour since she had last checked, and when she went outside with her purse and keys, she discovered the cause of the suddenly dreary sky.

Rainclouds gathered above her, fat and angry with threatening cracks of thunder booming over her head. The air felt alive with electricity, and Glimmer shivered, locking the door before making a mad rush to the parking lot.

She _stumbled_.

Three feet from the safety of her car and she _stumbled,_ it could only happen to her. Her bag went flying, spilling its contents halfway under her car. She grumbled and felt around blindly, shoveling everything back into her purse and probably adding plenty of gravel to the inside of it as well, but she couldn’t bring herself to care.

Her mother would have cared.

_”I”m not my mother.”_

Something inside her _broke._

She fumbled for the door handle as the fat raindrops pelted mercilessly at her face, her arms, her legs. Her vision blurred with hot, salty tears. She mashed her thumb at the useless key fob, trying desperately to unlock the stupid door, and when that didn't work, she jammed the key into the slot, missing twice and leaving deep gouges in the purple paint.

Glimmer wailed into the thunder, yanking the door practically off its hinges and crawling inside, the soft grey upholstery absorbing the rainwater that dripped off her sodden hair.

She shivered, cranking the key into the ignition and watching the headlights flicker to life. As she waited for the heat to kick on, Glimmer stared at her steering wheel.

She didn't want to go home.

What was left at home for her? A downtrodden father, trying with frantic energy to keep their broken family together? Hospital bills, piled up on the dining table where they used to eat together every night? The table that was growing mountains of papers and dust and clutter and stood a testament to the silent work her mother had done around the house? Because when she had lived, that goddamn table hadn't _ever_ looked the way it did now, and the fact neither of them could make themselves clear it felt like _spitting on her mom's entire life_ , the way the household had fallen apart without her here.

Losing someone must have been what phantom pain felt like; you kept wanting to reach out for something that no longer existed, but didn't feel gone yet.

Her mother still lived like a shadow in everything she did, in the camp and the house and this stupid fucking car that Glimmer and her dad had gotten custom painted her mother's favorite shade of deep eggplant last year for her birthday as a surprise, a surprise her mother had gotten to love for a grand total of two months before the machines and the sickness and the rubbery tubes sprouting from her pale arms and the deep blue bruises punched under her eyes like hollow sockets and the sudden unforgiving flatline of her heart monitor at four in the morning on Halloween.

Glimmer sniffed, a horrible snotty sound in the quiet of the car that broke into the gentle hum of the heater.

So many people told her all the reminders of Angella were a blessing, that it would be a comfort to see her mother in every corner of her life.

Glimmer just felt haunted.

She rested her forehead on the humidity-sticky pleather of the steering wheel, staring down at her lap. Thick, burning tears dripped steadily, blending into the splats already soaked into her jeans by the rain.

She didn't know how long she sat there, hunched over and shoulders shaking, bawling for her mother who could no longer comfort her, but it was definitely awhile because her back _ached_ when she jolted upright in surprise at the sound of the door handle.

It jiggled again, and then someone knocked on the window. "Glimmer, it's me!"

Bow was yelling to be heard over the howling wind and sheets of rain, and despite the fact that she didn't want _anyone_ to see her like this, she couldn't just leave him outside. She pressed the button on the door to pop the locks and immediately received a face full of laundry basket as Bow scrambled inside.

It was soaking wet and Glimmer shoved it into the backseat with a disgusted groan. “Ugh, Bow, what-”

He was rifling through her glove compartment, pulling out napkins branded with the logos of several different fast food places. He used them to squeeze rainwater out of his hair. “I washed the infirmary sheets,” he said, giving the tipped-over basket of wet linens in her backseat a vague gesture. “But my car broke down on the way here and then it started raining and I probably should have left them there but-” he broke off, staring at her. Glimmer sniffled. “Glimmer? Were you crying?”

“....no.”

He dropped the napkins to the floorboard, reaching for her hands. She pulled them away, cradling them to her chest. “Glim, come on-”

“I’m _fine_ , Bow. Don’t worry about it.”

Bow gave her a hard stare. She fidgeted uncomfortably, too aware of the salty tear tracks that had dried tacky on her cheeks. Scrubbing at her face, she tried to force a smile for him, but all he did was glare harder at her.

“All I _do_ is worry about you,” he muttered, so quietly it almost got lost in the purr of the heater.

It was like all the air had been sucked out of her lungs and her breathing hitched in her chest, painful and tight. Her eyes burned again, still tender and raw red from her previous bout of waterworks but it did not stem the fresh flood.

She hiccuped, and Bow’s face softened, and that was all that it took. He reached out for her, and Glimmer allowed it this time, letting him pull her out of the driver’s seat, across the console, and into his lap. She buried her face into his neck, ignoring the way her legs were twisted awkwardly across the center of the car, the gearshift pressing painfully into her calf. It didn’t matter, none of it mattered, because her mother was dead.

Her mother was dead and she had left behind a legacy too big to fill and too much for Glimmer to handle, and oh _god, mommy i miss you please i’m sorry i’m sorry i’m sorry_

Bow rocked her softly, humming into her hair as he did, letting her get snot and tears all over his collar.

_”I like that boy,”_

_”I know you do, mom.”_

He was just the best person in the whole world, he really was. She was such a _mess_ and he never cared that she was a mess, he just cared that she was okay, and god wasn’t that just so reassuring, having someone who wanted her to be happy, no ifs ands or buts? She loved him, she really did, she-wait a second.

She pulled back, startling him. Glimmer squinted, eyeballing him suspiciously. She strained to look at the basket in the backseat of her car, the heel of her hand digging into Bow’s stomach as she held herself up to look at it. 

_huh._

She fell back onto him, and he let out a little _oof_ as she did.

“Bow,” she asked, her voice sounding far away to her own ears. “You washed and dried the sheets for the infirmary?”

“Uh. Yes?”

“At the laundromat?”

“Yes.”

“With the wasps.”

Bow shuddered. He looked absolutely traumatized, and her heart thudded, feeling like it had wandered into her throat. “There were _so many wasps,_ Glim. I’ve never been so afraid for my life.”

She looked him directly in the eye. “Why would you do that, you’ve been complaining about the infestation for weeks now, all you’ve talked about how awful it is that Perfuma’s dad won’t take care of it, how you can’t even walk by the _door_ without feeling like you need to run away-”

Bow was...blushing? Bow? Was blushing? _blushing?_

Their faces were too close together to mistake it, even in the fading grey light of the storm outside. 

“You were busy,” he murmured, looking away. Her heart pounded as her mind flat out blanked.

_He had sucked it up and walked into a laundromat full of wasps just so that she wouldn’t have to do a stupid chore she had been putting off for like two weeks ohmygod_

She wrapped her arms back around his neck, crushing him in a tight hug. Outside, lightning flashed, but with her eyes closed as tightly as they were, it barely registered. Bow choked a little, startled by her sudden aggressive embrace, but like he always did, he gave as good as he got, and Glimmer felt _safe._

“I miss her too,” he confessed into her hair. “But you’re doing such a good job, and I know you don’t think you are, and I don’t want to overstep by telling you you’re just as efficient as your mom, if not better, because you _are,_ Glim.”

“Bow,” she said, muffled by the fabric at his throat. “I love you.”

She had said it a thousand times before, but this was different. She _needed_ him to know that this was different. This wasn’t like when they were kids and he brought her a soda after a rough day, or when he’d hold her hand after a fight with her mom, or the time that her dad had come back into her life so unexpectedly that she had had no sane reaction at the time, asking him to meet her at the bus station at three am and instead of letting her board the bus, he just held her as she wailed about the injustice of it all.

Or.

Maybe it was exactly like those times.

“I love you, too, Glimmer,” he said, and her heart stuttered. Bow pressed his lips to the crown of her head, and she sobbed again.

Maybe loving someone wasn’t some big sudden realization. Maybe it was the little things that added up, year after year after year until you were both in your twenties and making the same idiotic mistakes again and again and again.

Maybe they were still just a pair of stupid kids holding each other in a thunderstorm.

**Author's Note:**

> they told me in school to write what i knew
> 
> i know grief, i guess.
> 
> it's four am let me know if you liked it and pls read my other camp bright moon works if you've got some spare time


End file.
